The Right to Know (and Copy)

Curated by: Sabine Niederer

Online

Ongoing, www.impakt.nl/online, free

Unveiling the legal labyrinth of cloud computing, collecting and screening banned videos, and appropriating the templates and icons that make up our modern world, the online exhibition explores the impossibility of secrecy and the limits to openness.

Cloud Coin Metahaven

A cloud coin is a virtual symbol which gets inserted into the viewing experience of a website. The symbol resembles a coin, toke, or jewel. It contains information retrieved from the whois information of that website, and from a Google search for its domain name. This brings together information about the geographical hosting and ownership of a domain, with information on what that domain may have been involved in or used for, as far as such information is publicly available. As the viewer accesses a domain through the Cloud Coin website, the system generates “currency” for that particular domain which becomes visible in the browser window in the form of “cloud coins” which partially obscure the site behind them. Domains that build a high correlation of whois data with Google search results generate more currency than domains for which such correlation is mostly absent.

For example, “mypremierfutbol.com” in 2010 was exposed as one out of two domain spaces used to remotely control the notorious Stuxnet virus targeting Iranian nuclear facilities. It is assumed that Iran did not intercept communication from this domain as suspicious, because it appeared to come from a soccer fansite. Hosting for this domain is at Scottsdale, Arizona-based domainsbyproxy.com, a service which offers extreme discretion for its customers. It has been suggested that the United States, and possibly Israel, were behind Stuxnet. Domains by Proxy was never served with a US court order to give up client information for the fake soccer site.

When Googling for mypremierfutbol.com, this is the first hit:

“Is Serco behind Stuxnet?, page 1

www.abovetopsecret.com/forum/thread615788/pg1

17 posts – 9 authors – Last post: 1 Oct 2010

What does Serco Education and Children’s Services have to do with www. mypremierfutbol.com and www.todaysfutbol.com which are both …”

Cloud Coin assumes that the more a domain name, as an isolated term rather than referring to an organization, is the subject of reporting, speculation, and discussion (as measured through Google.com search results), the more likely it is that there may be particularities to its whois information. Entering a url into a window on Cloud Coin produces the intended domain, plus the “currency” of that domain under this assumption.

Concept & Design: Daniel van der Velden & Vinca Kruk (Metahaven)

Technical realization: Koen Martens

Website: to be announced

History Is Yours! Hendrik Jan Grievink & Coralie Vogelaar

‘History is Yours!’ is a provocative exaggeration of contemporary templates and icons in the form of a webshop for printed shirts. Combine text and image on your T-shirt, and make your own design referring to the black pages from history, hopeful events, or an alarming combination of both.

Every day 3 billion videos are watched, every minute 48 hours of video are Uploaded on YouTube alone. Amongst those millions of videos circulating on the web occasionally videos are removed. Not only because intellectual rights are being violated, but also because in some cases their content is deemed ‘inappropriate’ by governments or organizations.

Banned Videos is an ongoing project that aims to collect and show videos around the world that have been removed (or attempted to be removed) from the web, whether for political religious or ethical reasons. Anyone can contribute to the project by submitting a banned video. On a regular basis videos from the collection will be screened at cinemas, exhibitions and at relevant conferences. By doing so we hope to give a voice to those who have been silenced by others.

Banned Videos was part of Impakt festival 2011. It is initiated and curated by Dagan Cohen, artist/ advertising creative and founder of Amsterdam based Upload Cinema. The project is commissioned by Sabine Niederer, curator of Impakt online. Web designer is Kimberley Spreeuwenberg, technical realisation by Koen Martens.

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[...] reality created by data and the actual databases – and Metahaven) – who have participated in the Impakt Online program with their Cloud app. Check out the official page for more detailed info and reserve a ticket for [...]